IT ROO Cafe @ Kotaraya, JB

An impromptu lunch date on the last day of 2007 with my dearest brother who started working in Johor Bahru (JB) on 22nd November.

I hadn't been seeing my brother for quite some time for now. Our timing are so different. I once mentioned that we always take turn to go home. Hah.

Dear brother picked me up at city square. I was famished while waiting for his arrival. He promised to bring me to the best Chicken Chop served in JB voted by The Star. We parked at the side of the road (mind you, is yellow line) after making two rounds at the place looking for a parking.

Located at Jalan Dhoby. I started to wonder was there a lot of Dhoby shops here last time.

The humble looking shop didn't appear to be any award-winning cafe. A narrow & small shop. Simple chairs and tables. Nothing fanciful. Nothing extra. Very simple deco with old pics and old posters hanging on the wall. Just a very plain shop operated by 3 Malay lady. Did i mention that its kitchen is very small too?

But the dining crowd at almost 3pm justified its popularity.

A simple menu was presented to us upon our arrival. The Award-winning chicken chop was the first item on the menu. The menu is quite extensive (consider the shop is really quite small) ranging from Western dishes, Chinese dishes, Varity of Noodles, Soups and Sandwiches, drinks & dessert. For fried rice, you can opt for spicy and non-spicy. They offer fresh juices, local kopi, tea etc, "westernised" coffee like coffeecino and canned drinks for their drinks menu. They also have ice-cream for dessert. The price is pretty cheap, but of course it's higher than dining at a roadside coffee shop.

IT ROO Fried Rice spicy style @ RM 5.50 & Watermelon Juice @ RM 3.00

Grilled Chicken Chop with Black Pepper Sauce topped with fried egg (extra cost) @ RM 11.50

The fried rice is just a plate of very normal fried rice. Not spicy enough to give the kick. My brother even ate with chilli sauce. The famous chicken chop didn't earn my praise. Nothing to shout about. Or maybe it's just me. Maybe i'm not cut for chicken chop. Or maybe i didn't choose the fried chicken chop which is the original version. But overall, it was not that bad. It tasted alright. It was just me wondering what made it to be voted as the Best Chicken Chop by The Star in 2003. Or was it then in 2003 was its glorious moment and it went downhill? The chicken chop was served with green beans and slices of fried potatoes. The fried potatoes was nice. The green beans tasted like canned beans.

The watermelon juice is a little bit too sweet. But it complemented the fried rice and chicken chop well.

Overall, the ambience is pretty good. A nice place to have a meal with your friends and family.

IT Roo Cafe
17, Jalan Dhoby,
Johor Bahru, Johor.
Malaysia.

Wong Kok Char Chan Teng, 1 Utama Shopping Centre (Old Wing)

After a long day walking around in 1-Utama, mum wanted to go back to Uncle Vincent's place to take a shower before the last appointment with her ex-colleagues from the bookstore at 8pm.

It was 6.20pm and it was raining heavily. The long queue at the taxi stand was such a turn off. We probably need to wait for half an hour before we could hop into any taxi.

Bringing mum to a Char Chan Teng seems like a good idea. Let her rest her tired feet with some sweet bites seemed like the best solution.

I saw Wong Kok Char Chan Teng from the corner of my eyes when we were purchasing some gifts at Watson's. Its location was pretty hidden by the Nicole's Booth set up right in front of the shop. So we walked straight or to be exact, dragging our tired-self by walking slowly but directly to the shop from the taxi stand, without being distracted by anything.

I was still feeling very full from the Steamboat lunch. But the extensive and attractive menu fulfilled its purpose *lol* I was tempted. Extremely tempted. I ordered Banana Waffle with a scoop of ice-cream. 我敗給了美麗誘人的照片。。。*bang head, stupid menu*

芝士面包布丁 Peach & Cheese Bread Pudding @ RM 5.50

Mum ordered the bread pudding. She opted the sweet bread pudding (Wong Kok offers savoury bread pudding *roll eyes* ). Anyway, this bread pudding turns out ok. Served with two thick slices of peach, the bread pudding was covered with a very thick layer of cheese (Mozzarella cheese, if i tasted correctly). My mum liked it, but i still couldn't associate cheese with bread pudding. Maybe i was still in the era of egg+raisins+milk version of bread pudding. But taste wise, it was pretty ok. Bits of peach can be found at the layer of egg custard with trace of peach flavour. I supposed Peach Syrup was added.

香蕉淇淋夹饼 Banana Waffle with Single Scoop Ice-Cream @ RM 6.90

A little disappointed. First of all, i was expecting a light and crisp waffle. But it turned out to be soft and dense. Maybe its Hong Kong style? Secondly, i was looking forward for more banana on the waffle served. For the seven slices of banana, i could get one more scoop of ice-cream with the same price.

Mum had a cup of hot Hong Kong Style Yin-Yang 港式鸳鸯@ RM 2.50 but she claimed that the taste of tea overpowered the coffee. *Shrug* I thought it was decent. I had a cup of almond drink with egg white 杏仁蛋白露@ 3.80. Lovely. Smooth and aromatic. But too little egg white.

*No picture, cos too busy enjoying my almond drink *slurp*

Nontheless, it was an enjoyable time to dine with my dearest mummy.

It satisfied me.

Not the food.

But the look of my mum enjoying what's on the table.

Wong Kok Char Chan Teng
Lot F225, 1st Floor
1 Utama Shopping Centre
Bandar Utama, 47800 PJ
Tel: (03) 77108611

Plus One Shabu Shabu @ 1 Utama Shopping Centre

Late breakfast, snacking here and there resulting us having lunch at almost 3pm. Hmm...But i kind of like this kinda lifestyle. My tummy grows but it does not growl... *wink* A lifestyle of Tai Tai that i'm looking forward...

Looking around at the "interactive directory" again, couldn't make up our mind what to eat. *what the heck, don't understand the machine at all!!! Too high tech~*

We were actually heading to Jack's Place because we saw they were providing set lunch promotion which was priced reasonably. On our way, mum saw this steamboat shop served individually. She was attracted to it. So we had steamboat in the afternoon instead or plain western.

Mixed Set 杂锦锅 @ RM 12.90

We ordered a mixed set which include the soup. Mum chose the Fish Head Soup. If you are ordering ala carte, you will need to pay for the soup. For set lunch, you can only choose between Winter Veg Pork Soup, Teow Chew Salted Veg Soup, Fish Head Soup and Ma La Soup. There are a few more variety of soup like TomYam but it is not included in the set lunch. The mixed set includes 2 prawns, 2 scallop, some fish, chicken & pork, beancurd skin aka Fu Chok with fishpaste, 2 crabsticks, a few miserable leaves of cabbage & 2 tiny weeny slices of pumpkin, an egg and one big ee-mee.

I'll not post the pic of the soup as the picture turned out to be foggy. Hungry girl wanted to fix her stomach than to take good pics. *giggle* But mum's soup came with many chunks of fried fish head. Nice!

I ordered Teow Chow Soup @ RM 6.00 which was the salted veg soup with toufu & tomatoes. It was salty but it meant to be that way. I shared the ingredients from the mixed set with mum topped with Tong Hou Veg. What's that in chinese, i don't know the PinYin so i can't type it out. So sorry. Anyway, it looks like this...

Tong Hou Vege @ RM 5.00

Overall, the ambience of the restaurant is good and you'll get free-flow drinks with the choice of Nestea Greentea or Ice Lemon Tea. Furthermore, Jelly-O will be served when you have finished youe meal. Service staffs are pretty attentive and the price is very reasonable. All set lunch are priced between RM 12.90 - RM 15.90 only.

If you are there, don't know what you want to eat, can try this restaurant. It's worth trying.

Plus One Shabu Shabu
Lot F337-338, 1st Floor,
1 Utama Shopping Centre.
Tel: (03) 77253322
Fax: (03) 77256322

Auntie Anne's @ 1 Utama (New Wing)

On boxing day, my mum & i went gai-gai @ 1 Utama Shopping Centre.

It was the second time my mum is here after its expansion few years ago. It was still new and many shops weren't open at new wing then. So it was a "WOW" for my mum and we, Yup, it's "We" have difficulty locating the shops with its new interactive directory. Maybe i'm just not so IT-savvy??? It was my first time using too. An advanced technology but hmm... Maybe 1-U is just too big.

We reached 1-U around noon and we had a dinner appointment at 8pm at The Curve with mum's ex-colleagues some 20+ yrs ago. Both of us just wanted to take things slow and easy for the day. No rush, No rush for the last day in KL. Just wanted to have some mother-and-daughter time together *wink*

Since we had a light breakfast before we left Uncle Vincent & Aunty Ling's place, so we had...

Pretzel @ Auntie Anne's RM 4.00

Located at Lower Ground at the new wing, its location is not to be missed. Right beside Cinnabon, we had a pretty hard time deciding which to eat. Pretzel shall it be. So it was, Almond Pretzel with Chocolate dip. Dipping is free of charge for every pretzel purchased but extra dipping costs an additional RM 1.00. Both of us love the freshness and the chewy texture of Auntie Anne's pretzel. The almond bits turned out to be my mum's favourite. Slightly caramelised almond was crunchy and it complemented the chewy texture of the pretzel perfectly!

Btw, you can find many Auntie Anne's branches all around in Singapore but i never patronise any of them. Back in Malaysia, even it is priced at RM 4, i would still buy.... Because... It's cheaper than Singapore!!! Lol..

A snapshot in Padini Concept Store. A deco i like a lot and i love the Mini Cooper in red!!!

Isn't it interesting for a red mini to appear in a store? Cool eh?

Home-made Pasta

Homemade Fusilli with Brinjal & Capsicum in Simple Tomato Sauce

A ticket to JB - RM 7.50
A phone call - RM 0.30
A plate of homemade pasta - Priceless

Sounds familiar? Haha, yup. The time spent with my brother in his humble-rented apartment with three handsome-bachelor residents. It was indeed priceless. *wink*

I was referring to the time spent with my brother as priceless, What are you thinking ??? Hah. It was a surprise visit to my brother.

It wasn't meant to be a visit.

Actually i was on my way back to Singapore while transiting at JB. Being too bored, i decided to give a call to my beloved brother in JB to tease & tempt him of all the good food i had at home, including "telling" him i "ta bao"=packed homecooked food from home to bring back to Sg. He, happily mistaken me sending homecook food for him. It was a bit complicated and I also didn't know how i ended being fetched by him at Larkin & the next thing i know i was already at his rented apartment, 1km away from Larkin. *my bro kept emphasized "my place is only 1KM away from larkin"*

Homecooked pasta was what he managed to whip up to welcome my first visit to his place.

My brother dotes on me a lot. All the little gestures showed it all.

Capsicum, brinjal & a handful of fusilli were all he had. Added with lots of love of a brother for extra flavour.

A bowl of Campbell Soup was all I can offer, using whatever that was leftover.

Mum's cooking is still the best! "Stainless-steel Pot Chicken" is what I meant. Well-marinated and full of flavour. Having it for 3 meals in 3 days was not bored at all.

At the end of the day, my brother was robbed by his little sister of his starbucks voucher.

It will be our next date. I promise...... together with mum & dad, hopefully...

Kahang Pau @ Night

Kahang is a small town, located at the outskirt of Kluang.

It's a town with just a street of double-storey shophouses and some housing estate. One couldn't believe in why so many banks swamp there to open their branches. Probably that's the attraction of a town rich in oil palm plantation.

Wild animals are commonly found in the restaurants in Kahang. Wild boar? Deer meat? Little cutie squirrel? Too common? Or would you like some bats? Crocodile? Or some exotic animals like tiger meat or bear palm? You name it, and it will be served on your dining table in no time.

But this is not what i wanted to introduce. What i wanted to introduce is this.

The man behind the scence, selling the yummylicous Kahang Pau

"A scene i'm so familiar with. A scene i miss. "

The uncle will always come at around 5+pm,just before 6pm to set up his little stall located at Jalan Lambak. Putting up the table, taking out the gas cylinder, stacking of the bamboo steaming tray and arranging the pau before he heads into heating up the pau and manning the stall for the rest of the night.

I've eaten the pau since young. During the late nights spent in my mum's office. Or just a pau for supper after attending church's prayer meeting. It holds my childhood memories.

He sells a varieties of pau. No too many though, but it's enough to appeal to customers like me. Reasonably priced for the yummy tasting pau, he has many regulars as well as customers who would just stop at the side of the stall to get a few of it.

Peanut Pau, Red Bean Pau, Kaya Pau, Veggie Pau are all priced at RM1 while my favourite of all time Lian Rong Pau (Sweet Lotus Paste Pau) is only selling at 70cents. Small Pau or Little Meat Pau and Char Siew Pau are priced at RM 1.20 and Big Pau is RM 2.30. He also sells Nor Mai Gai which is Steam Glutinous Rice with chicken and it is priced at RM 2.30.

"Never really treasure those days. It seems so common. So plain you might say. "

But now, i missed the chance of holding the warm pau in my hand, especially on a cold rainy night. Or what i miss the most is the pau bought by my dad & mum? I seriously don't know.

"Chewing on the handmade bun with piping hot filling, happiness filled my heart."

Then now i resorted to eating Kong Guan Pau in Singapore, which you didn't need to peel the skin off. (FYI, you can't get to peel it off anyway. It just stucked to the bun itself) And the bun has no texture at all =(

A Simple Peanut Pau that can bring a smile to my face

It was a joy when i managed to patronise his stall last friday when i was back in Kluang. I insisted that i want to buy a pau despite my family were going to have dinner right after that. The child in me was calling out for the familiar food that i missed when i was in Singapore. I wanted to get Lian Rong Pau but uncle said it wasn't hot yet. So i resorted to another fav of mine, peanut pau! The texture of the pau was just so right, soft yet chewy, with the sweet roasted peanut filling. Sugar grains were found in the filling and it added to the flavour and made the filling a little crunchy.

"And this is one of the things I missed, from my beloved town of Kluang...."

"Sometimes, enjoying the simplicity of life can be a form of happiness..."

Located at:
125, Jalan Lambak
86000 Kluang,Johor.

Lunch @ Ah Cheng Bistro

Home coming,
that's where i am longing......
For some breath-taking,
to where i belonging......

Lian Seng Foodcourt or also known as Suria Foodcourt

A few streets away from the bus station,
Waiting for "the lunch" instruction,
With the phonecall i just returned,
That's where my dad asked us to station......

Thunder Tea Rice/"Ham Cha" @ RM3.00

Two bowls of "thunder tea" rice were on our table,
for the two ladies who were very sober,
Fiber and Minerals, a bowl of soup included,
at the price of RM 3, is this the healthiest meal in the world?

"Uncle, ADD SOUP pls...." at the cost of one dollar RM1 sahaja,
All you gotta do is to go there and order.
Bits of crunchy peanuts & crunchy vegetables,
Being a Hakka, is my honour.

A Stall that has been around for a long long time...

Daddy was wondering,
What he should be eating.
He did the ordering,
Even without thinking!

Yong Tau Foo, minimum order of RM3 inclusive of rice/choice of noodle

Not the Ampang Yong Tau Foo,
But is Mr.Zhang's Yong Tau Foo,
Not to try, you're a fool,
Cos it tastes very good too~

Located at:

Lian Seng Garden,

Behind Lian Seng Market.

86000 Kluang,

Johor.

May Tip Thai Food Restoran@Bukit Mertajam, Penang

During my previous visit to the Northern Part of my beloved country, i had the chance of going into Penang island during the crazy period, just before Christmas. I felt like, "WOW! The whole world is heading to little Penang Island!!!" We wanted to take the ferry but the jam was like...Hmm...I shall not talk about it. It was beyond my imagination. Anyway, we used the Penang Bridge which we were caught in a jam too. At least 10 cars broke down at the entrance of the bridge (just after the toll) due to over-heating which worsen the jam.

But anyway, i didn't want to talk about the jam. I'm not going to tell you about why we went to Penang in the first place. If you know what we did there, you probably would knock on my head *real hard*!

This is about FOOD!!! About authentic yummy-licious THAI food~ Just before we got caught in the never-ending traffic congestion.

Located at Bukit Mertajam, at the small town area, hidden among the double-storey shophouses, who would thought of finding gems there?

Yup, i never thought of it either. But i found it, real GEMS! Glorious Thai Food. *drool*

Mixed Variety Savouries RM 12

Anyone who's a lover of Thai food should know this dish very well. Served as a starter, it resembles the Salad in Western cuisine. Roasted Peanuts, dried shrimp, freshly chopped ginger, onion, lime (all in small cubes) and cili padi served with roasted dessicated coconut. It is to be eaten by dipping the specialty sauce after wrapping the ingredients with the leave. One can add the ingredients according to one's taste. The trick is, include everything! Anything less (like minus-ing the ginger) will somehow loses its taste. I love mine with lots of cili and sauce! Spicy and sweet at the same time, it sends me straight up the rooftop! Whee~

Green Mango salad RM 12

I couldn't escape the fact that i love Thai green mango salad but this came as a disappointment. The taste of the dried shrimp is over-powering. It has got the fishy-smell, probably due to the same reason. The green mango isn't that crunchy and doesn't have the sourish taste. Although i love the taste of dried shrimp, but too much just spoilt it all.

Seafood Tom Yam RM 20

As the waitress served us with this pot of Tom Yam, we though we couldn't finish. Served in the traditional chinese steamboat pot, the portion is big, broth is sweet and thick with lots of fresh big succulent prawns, squid, thickly-sliced fish, tomatoes and onions. We drank to the very last bit of the soup. We almost wanted to turn over the pot and shake it all out.Haha...

Pandan Chicken @ RM 1.40 each

I don't know whether Pandan Chicken originated from Thailand but it's a highly sought after dish when it comes to Thai Cuisine (just like Thai Fish Cake). Well-marinated Tender Chicken wrapped with Pandan Leaves, grilled over charcoal fire, infusing the aromatic Pandan smell to the chicken, dipped with sweet and sour Thai Chilli sauce, perfect! Except that i don't know charcoal fire is involved here and it came soaking with oil, or honey? I simply didn't know. But it was well-marinated, it was tender, it was pleasing to my palate, these were all i knew.

Otah-Otah RM 12

This came as another big surprise, a negative one. Its portion was big & looked delectable. Nope, looks can be deceiving. It is a soft otah, way too soft and without texture. Probably too much santan (coconut milk)? One can find fish meat and prawns in it but it wasn't fresh. You can only get the strong lemongrass smell and nothing else. Not recommended. Utterly disappointed.

Stir-Fried Kai Lan with Siew York RM 12

In order to have a balance diet, one must include greens. It is a source of fiber, Vit K (exists in green leaves veg) which is important in blood coaagulation, minerals and anti-oxidant. So we had Kai Lan with the tender lean Siew York as the highlight of the dish. Even for a non-pork lover like me would shout out loud, "The Siew York is delicious!"

I was eyeing on the dessert of the day which was the Thai Red Ruby which is only available on weekends but i was stuffed to my max. Who said we have a 20% capacity for dessert no matter how full we are??? I think i had just used up all my space for dessert. Mind you, there were only three of us and all the dishes were whipped clean, most of it by me, of cos.

A big THANK Q to Aunty June who drove us to Penang despite the hot sun & expected jam & bringing us around for good food. But your company is actually the best part of the whole trip. *Hugz*

May Tip Thai Food Restaurant No.28, Lebuh Keranji, Taman Mutiara, 14000 Bukit Mertajam. Penang. Malaysia

Tel: 04-5399910 HP:012-4333910

Operation hours: 11.00am-3.00pm (lunch) 6.00pm - 11.00pm (dinner)

A tale of an Excursion of 6 girls

It was a Saturday.

The first day of Holidays for many in NTU but not us. It was already the 2nd Saturday into our Holidays! WhooHoo... A weird kind of feeling though, because for our course, we always have exam until the last day or second last day of the WHOLE exam period. Those were the days when i was still "mugging" aka studying for exam and my hallmates had already finish theirs. Finally things took a different turn. Hah.

3 sleepless girls - Wan Wan, Chii Chii and Karen, too excited for the outing perhaps.

10am at Kranji MRT marked the start of our outing.

A cup of tea while we waited for the late ones and do our "dirty laundry* " at the same time.

Finally, we got to embark on our journey out of Singapore at 10.55am.

Boarded The Smiley Bus - Causeway Link with 50cents. Cheers for Causeway link with student's price! Reminded my fellow singaporean friends to keep the stub of the ticket for re-boarding of the bus at custom.

Smooth clearance at Singapore custom, but not so smooth at Malaysia side. Whoah! "People Mountain People Sea", it's a common scene on a Saturday morning.

For Malaysian like me, it probably won't take you a moment, cos they don't really care, especially when you are a frequent traveller, in and out of Singapore. I usually just walk through showing my passport without scanning by the officer if i'm alone. My mum will definitely scan her passport.

Struggle to make my way through the crowd to get white cards for my friends. Getting my way back was worse, because i was against the flow of human traffic. Locating them among the crowd was difficult too. Phew~

After a long long wait for an hour, we finally made our way out of the custom with Chii Chii's dad waiting for us patiently. Yu Chii's dad was so kind to send us to our first destination, Plaza Pelangi.

Why Plaza Pelangi, if City Square that's bigger and newer is just within walking distant?

It was because we are going RED BOX located at Plaza Pelangi for K-session. Whoo~~~ Anticipated for this for a long long time. I hadn't been singing karaoke for ages. Really ages. A year or 6 months at least. Finally, i got to sing.

We took the K-lunch package at RM11++ which include one main and a drink. You can add RM2 to upgrade to 1 litre of drink of your choice! Yes, only RM2!!! Choices of food include Yang Chow Fried Rice RM11++ , Curry Laksa RM16++, Executive Sandwich RM11++ etc. You can also add on some side dishes for RM2 only, add-ons are Cheese Mussels, sausages and a few more which i couldn't remember. Choices of drinks available are soft drinks, fruit juices such as orange,guava etc and hot drinks like milo, tea and coffee are also available.

Not in my tip-top condition to sing but i had my share of fun, not hitting the right key, laughing through the part that i totally forgetten how to sing etc.

Celebrated Yu Chii and Yu Fei's Birthday at Red Box with 6 slices of Secret Recipe's Cake.

From its cheesecake counter: Chilled Blueberry Cheesecake & Rasberry Cheesecake, Healthy range: Hi-fibre Cheesecake & No-sugar Moist Chocolate Cake and we also had Chocolate Banana Cake & Mocha Walnut Cake from its creamcake selection.

Verdict: Secret Recipe's Cheesecake is Totally Awesome! So is my all time favourite Chocolate Banana. Surprisingly the healthy version of Secret Recipe's which were trans-fat free were delicious too. But the mocha walnut cake was a little disappointing.

6 girls couldn't finish the cakes. What a waste! I tried my best to eat off all the cakes but to my dismay, my tummy had its limit too. Ohh...my tummy was bloated with cakes. Satisfied!

Took a cab to City Square for only RM6.00 (less than SGD$3.00 !!!). If i used to stay in M'sia, i would say it's so expensive for such a short distant. But 2.5 yrs in Singapore changed me just a little. Because spending in Singapore is just too expensive, for me. According to my friends (as i don't take cab, bus is much cheaper), sometimes hopping into a cab during peak hour without going anywhere already cost you SGD$3-5++ for surchange. So I'm more willing to spend when i'm in M'sia.

Visited Wong Kok Char Chan Ting in City Square before we hit off for our movie, Stardust.

Wong Kok Char Chan Ting is another Hong Kong Style Restaurant Franchise which mushroom all over Malaysia. Similar to Kim Gary, which is another Hong Kong Restaurant, the food they serve are a little bit different. With 200++ items on the menu, one is overwhelmed by its selection. Colourful menu captured our attention but the fear of over-feeding ourselves stopped us eventually from order too much. Each order one main while i only ordered a cup of Hong Kong Yin-Yang, which is a cup of coffee and tea mixture.

I once heard, the ratio of a cup of Good Yin-Yang is 7-3. 7 parts of Tea and 3 parts of Coffee. I wonder is it so?

(1st row L to R: Iced Yin-Yang 冰鸳鸯, Special Golden XO Roll 金包银XO卷，Rice served with Fish and Vegetables 蛋包鱼菜饭

2nd row L to R: Special Golden XO Roll 金包银XO卷, Hot Yin-Yang 港式鸳鸯，Fried Hor-furn with Fish and Vegetables 菜元班腩炒河

3rd row L to R: Cheesebaked Prok Chop Rice 芝士猪扒锔饭，internal of the XO roll, Snow Veg Pork Ribs Noodles 雪菜排骨汤面）

The cup of Yin-Yang is nice. Just nice. A very simple and nice cup of beverage. The taste is not overwhelming yet aromatic. RM 2.90 for a cup of nice Yin-Yang, where can find in Singapore? I remembered I once tried a Hong Kong restaurant which serve the famous Hong Kong Milk Tea, Bleak, worse than the one serve at my home town and im paying SGD$2.90 for it!

The rest gave a thumb up for the Iced Yin-Yang too. So they had high expectatinon for the hot Yin-Yang ordered. But they were disappointed for a split moment as theirs didn't taste as good as mind, or should i say, tasteless. We eventually found out that Hot Yin-Yang is served sugarless, meaning one need to add in sugar to one's liking. This is another plus point, at least for me as i prefer coffee without sugar or less sweet.

I didn't order any main as i still feel really bloated with the previous cakes. According to my humble biology knowledge, fats take longer time to digest and the cakes eaten were all cream & cheese. Nevermind about the calories. I always have the soft spot when it comes to cakes, especially cheesecakes!

We shared a Special Golden XO Roll 金包银XO卷 @ RM7.50 . It was actually an omellette wrapped with chee-cheong-fun, chinese bacon bits, pork floss & some specialty sauce. Simply delicious!

Both the Fish Fillet Cheesebaked Rice @ RM14.50 and Pork Chop Cheesebaked Rice @ RM 13.80 were served in the container you probably seen in Chinese Dim Sum Restaurant. Both looked almost identical to each other until you cut open the generous layer of cheese topping. MMpphh... Yummy! There were three types of sauce for you to choose from: Cream Sauce, Tomato Sauce or Portugese Sauce. Both Wan Jing and Karen chose tomato sauce for their baked rice.

Yu Chun's Fried Hor Furn with Fish and Vegetables @ RM8.20 looked extremely "open stomach" aka 开胃 because of the salivating egg sauce with strains of egg yolk that you could see when it was served. It was nice but a little too salty.

Rice served with Fish and Vegetables 蛋包鱼菜饭 @ RM9.80, something light in flavour and taste for the palate after a whole lot of cheesecake. Didn't get to try but according to Yu Fei, it was nice! She didn't further describe it but she finished the whole bowl of rice, action showed them all, didn't it?

Snow Veg Pork Ribs Noodles 雪菜排骨汤面 @ RM7.20 took a long time before it was served. We started to wonder was it because it didn't snow in M'sia? Ok, a silly joke. Anyway, all of us felt it was over-salty but we were thinking was it because Hong Kong style cooking were all to the salty side? Probably. The noodles tasted a little like instant noodle too. Overall, it was not too bad.

Headed off to the cinema straight after the meal. We were late for five minutes due to the delay in the toilet. Movie started but luckily we didn't miss much, 1-2minutes at most. Stardust was a pretty good movie, worth watching! Highly recommended! We enjoyed the show a lot. Funny yet in depth, a meaningful movie.

Movie ended at 9.15pm. Yu Chii headed home and the rest of us headed back to Singapore with hee-hee-haa-haa all the way until we departed with each other at Kranji MRT station.

A simple yet enjoyable outing. Excursion experience for some. A bonding session for another.

I simply enjoyed the fellowship and laughter we shared with each other!

I LOVE MY TCM GIRLS !!!

*Dirty laundry* meaning writing the birthday card right in front of the birthday girl. -_-"

清新小品@Kluang

I was back at home over the weekend.

I was told that Sis. Siew Ying is bringing my family out for dinner on Friday evening. She is a close family friend, attending the same church as my family, a caring teacher, someone you can share your thoughts and seek adcvice.

We went to a small tea-place restaurant. It is located way-off the town area of Kluang, hiding behind some shophouses. The entry to the restaurant gave a very nostalgia feeling and so did the interior.

T-time is a tea house that serves an extensive variety of Chinese Tea and Floral Tea. From Long Jin, Pu Er, Xiang Pian (Jasmine) to Chamomile, Rose and Lavender. Each can serve up to four persons and the tea leaves are packed individually into a zipper bag.

Yellow-lighting and wooden chairs & tables, with four individual cubicles separated by bamboo curtain (???). The frontdesk was surrounded with cupboards displaying various tea-pot sets and chinaware. It provides pretty good ambience for an afternoon catching-up yum-cha session where you can spend your whole afternoon comfortably in an air-con tea place.

Its specialty is Porridge. They serves a wide variety of Cantonese style porridge. Fish slice porridge, Century egg porridge, Minced meat porridfe, Chichken Porridge and the list goes on. I wasn't really hungry so i opted Vegetable and Anchovies Porridge priced @ RM 4.90. Sis Siew Ying needed something light from her late afternoon tea, so she ordered the same porridge.

Each serving of Porridge comes in individual pot with an empty bowl and a plate of fried cracker. I supposed the thin cracker is served in replacement of the normal fried cruller or You Tiao that we usually eat with the porridge.

The Vegetable and Ikan Bilis Porridge was pretty good. It's not exactly so smooth like authentic Cantonese Porridge. I can still taste individual grain in it. It had a generous amount of ikan bilis (anchovies) and veg. Both Sis Siew Ying and myself were wondering what veg they put in it. My guess was Sayur Kayu Manis and Sis Siew Ying guessed Long Bean Leaves. We didn't have chance to ask the boss but i felt it was more like Long Bean Leaves than Sayur Kayu Manis because the Veg was rather tasteless, unlike Sayur Kayu Manis. Sayur Kayu Manis is the normal veg you can find in Pan Mian or Min Fun Gou/Mian Fen Gao.

Mum ordered Spicy Fried Rice, not an order my mum would normally make. Nothing fascinating and it was not spicy enough.

Dad ordered Lor Mee. The bowl was big and so is the spoon. Blended Cili Padi and vinegar were served alongside with the bowl of noodles. It's tasty!

We ordered a bowl of specialty salad to share. Salad - It should come before the main but it was exactly opposite in this restaurant. It was only served when we were almost done with our food, hahaha! My mum's fav, the dressing was mayonnaise but it tasted a little different. I wonder why...

清新小品

Restaurant T-Time Cafe

Located behind The Cathay Restaurant

Taman Muhibah,

86000 Kluang, Johor.

PS: Mum fried Nian-gao especially for me! Lots and lots of Nian Gao, probably enough to feed 6 was served 4. I forgo the Chee Cheong Fun which eventually became my lunch for the sake of Fried Nian Gao. Yum~ Nian Gao was covered with thick batter made with eggs, flour, sugar and a pinch of salt. Extra batter was used to fried "Bok Chang" shown in pic. What's that, you may ask. I don't have an answer for you. But it's made with egg, sugar and flour. It can be made into savoury version by replacing sugar with salt and add in condiments like ikan billis (anchovies), spring onion, onions etc as you wish.

Three of us (mum, dad and I) attended Johore Kah Yin Association Fall(season) Celebration at Cin Cin Restaurant on Sunday. Cin Cin Restaurant is a well knowned restaurant for over 20 years which serves their famous Pi Pa Duck with sour plum sauce. Absolutely yummy! It is a dish that i eat from young. A dish that will make its appearance in every function held in the restaurant, wedding/birthday/association dinner.

The practice of starting all events on time is observed by Kah Yin Association and this is commentable. Mum & her association kakis presented 3 songs on stage, including one hakka Mountain Song.

Visited Uncle Chong and Aunty Siew Siew, our old neighbour. Uncle Chong injured his back and the inflammation was all the way from the back to his left hand. Sometimes he can feel the numbness and the pull. Currently Aunty Siew Siew is taking care of Siew Siew Jie Jie's two kids. The younger one is still a 2 or 3 months old infant. Really cute and adorable! Look exactly like Uncle Chong.

With two three more homecooked meals, Tuesday lunch at home marked the end of my trip back home. Ate a lot of Foodie every time i'm back at home, for my motto when i'm back at home is.

" 吃了再算!"

"Eat first Think later"